Rangers to Implement Military Free Fall

Fort Benning, GA (June 10th, 2013) – The Ranger Regiment has a history going back to the 1600’s, and has long been revered as a fighting force unlike any other. Since the onset of the Global War on Terrorism in 2001, the Ranger Regiment has grown through evolution after evolution as a force. It started with the elimination of the “High and Tight” hair cut and continued with the addition of an “Echo” support company at each battalion, a fourth rifle company per battalion, as well as standing up the Regimental Special Troops Battalion.

As an ongoing expansion of the selection and training process that started with taking the old three week Ranger Indoctrination Program and turning it into the now eight week Ranger Assessment and Selection Program, it has been leaked that they will now be adding on the ROTC program. The Ranger Operator Training Course (ROTC) will take the newly minted Ranger Infantryman, Medic, Fire Support and Communications personnel from RASP directly to the Ft. Bragg JFK Special Warfare Center and School to attend SERE Level ‘C’ as well as the Special Forces Military Free Fall Parachutist Course before returning to Ft. Benning for assignment to their respective battalions. The Ranger Medics will remain stationed at Ft. Bragg for follow on training at the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center.

In light of the leak about the newly planned training pipeline, the Regimental Public Affairs Office released the following statement: “The Ranger Regiment has traditionally been the ‘go-to’ element for forced-entry operations. Infiltration techniques such as static-line airborne operations have lost viability as the sole entry method for the modern Ranger mission, especially in operations where speed, surprise, and accuracy are essential to the mission. The Regiment is evolving to meet the current operational environment.” The RPAO also pointed to the mandate from the Department of Defense’s Joint Operational Access Concept dated Jan. 17, 2012, “Operational access does not exist for its own sake, but rather serves our broader strategic goals. Joint forces must be able to project military force into any operational area … This is not a new challenge, but it is one that U.S. joint forces have not been called upon to face in recent decades. That condition is likely [to] change, and may prove to be of critical importance in the coming years.”

The decision to expand the pipeline has sent shockwaves through the Ranger community, who expected to have the Army’s premier combat leadership course, Ranger School, added to the initial pipeline long before any other courses made it in. One senior Ranger NCO with over ten combat deployments said “This makes sense, we need the capability to reach our nations enemies anywhere they lie, and we do not need to be sending young Rangers to school before they are ready to take a leadership position in the Regiment.” The 75th has long prided itself on having the best leaders in the Army, and it looks as if they will not be making any changes to how they develop their leaders anytime soon.

The only question left is, “when will this be implemented?” Nothing has been said of when the first class will go through the new ROTC, but our sources tell us that the unveiling of the full plan and formal announcement of the new pipeline will happen at the upcoming Rendezvous during the ‘State of the Regiment’ brief.

This has been a Hit the Woodline SATIRE piece and should not be regarded as truthful. No reference of any individual, company, or military unit seeks to inflict malice or harm. All characters in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.